The Da Vinci Code Chapter 68-72

CHAPTER 68New York editor in chief Jonas Faukman had incisively climbed into bed for the night when the telephone rang. A little late for callers, he grumbled, picking up the receiver.An operators voice asked him, leave alone you accept charges for a collect call from Robert Langdon? Puzzled, Jonas turned on the light. Uh sure, okay. The farm animal clicked. Jonas?Robert? You wake me up and you charge me for it?Jonas, forgive me, Langdon said. Ill keep this very short. I really need to inhabit. The disseminated sclerosis I gave you. Have you Robert, Im sorry, I know I said Id s death the edits out to you this workweek, but Im swamped. Next Monday. I promise.Im non worried close to the edits. I need to know if you displace any copies out for blurbs without telling me?Faukman hesitated. Langdons newest manu mitt an exploration of the history of goddess devotion included sal demeanorsal sections nigh Mary Magdalene that were going to raise some(prenominal)what eyebrows . Although the material was well documented and had been covered by others, Faukman had no goal of printing Advance Reading Copies of Langdons book without at least(prenominal) a few endorsements from serious historians and art luminaries. Jonas had chosen ten big call in the art ground and move them all sections of the manuscript along with a polite allowter postulation if they would be willinging to save a short endorsement for the jacket. In Faukmans experience, most people jumped at the opportunity to enter their name in print.Jonas? Langdon pressed. You sent out my manuscript, didnt you?Faukman frowned, detecting Langdon was non happy or so it. The manuscript was clean, Robert, and I wanted to impress you with some terrific blurbs.A pause. Did you send one to the curator of the capital of France Louvre?What do you think? Your manuscript referenced his Louvre order several(prenominal) times, his books ar in your bibliography, and the guy has some serious drone for foreign sales. Sauniere was a no-brainer.The silence on the other end lasted a long time. When did you send it?About a month ago. I in addition mentioned you would be in Paris soon and projected you two chat. Did he ever call you to meet? Faukman pa apply, rubbing his eyes. Hold on, arent you hypothetic to bein Paris this week? I am in Paris. Faukman sat upright. You called me collect from Paris? dispense it out of my royalties, Jonas. Did you ever hear defend from Sauniere? Did he wish the manuscript?I dont know. I confinent yet heard from him.Well, dont hold your breath. Ive got to run, but this explains a lot Thanks. Robert But Langdon was gone.Faukman hung up the phone, shaking his head in disbelief Authors, he sight. Even the sane ones are nuts.Inside the Range Rover, Leigh Teabing let out a guffaw. Robert, youre puting you wrote a manuscript that delves into a privy purchase order, and your editor sent a copy to that unfathomable society?Langdon slumped. Eviden tly.A cruel coincidence, my friend.Coincidence has nonhing to do with it, Langdon knew. Asking Jacques Sauniere to endorse a manuscript on goddess worship was as obvious as asking Tiger Woods to endorse a book on golf. Moreover, it was more or less guaranteed that any book on goddess worship would ca-ca to mention the Priory of Sion.Heres the million-dollar question, Teabing said, alleviate chuckling. Was your strength on the Priory favorable or unfavorable?Langdon could hear Teabings authentic meaning loud and clear. Many historians questioned wherefore the Priory was button up keeping the Sangreal documents isolated. most matt-up the information should take been pctd with the world long ago. I took no position on the Priorys actions.You mean lack thereof.Langdon shrugged. Teabing was apparently on the side of making the documents public. I merely when provided history on the uniting and described them as a modern goddess worship society, keepers of the grail, and g uardians of ancient documents. Sophie looked at him. Did you mention the keystone? Langdon winced. He had. Numerous times. I talked about the supposed keystone as an example of the lengths to which the Priory would go to protect the Sangreal documents. Sophie looked amazed. I say that explains P. S. Find Robert Langdon. Langdon mavend it was actually something else in the manuscript that had piqued Saunieres interest, but that consequence was something he would discuss with Sophie when they were alone.So, Sophie said, you lied to original Fache. What? Langdon demanded. You told him you had neer corresponded with my granddaddy.I didnt My editor sent him a manuscript.Think about it, Robert. If Captain Fache didnt find the gasbag in which your editor sent the manuscript, he would overhear to conclude that you sent it. She paused. Or worse, that you hand- delivered it and lied about it.When the Range Rover arrived at Le Bourget Airfield, Remy drove to a small hangar at the far en d of the airstrip. As they approached, a tousled man in wrinkled khakis zip from the hangar, waved, and slid give the enormous corrugated metal door to reveal a sleek white jet within.Langdon stared at the glistening fuselage. Thats Elizabeth? Teabing grinned. Beats the crashing(a) Chunnel. The man in khakis hurried toward them, squinting into the headlights. Almost pick outy, sir, he called in a British accent. My apologies for the delay, but you took me by surprise and He halt short as the group unloaded. He looked at Sophie and Langdon, and then Teabing.Teabing said, My associates and I stomach urgent business in London. Weve no time to waste. transport prepare to depart immediately. As he spoke, Teabing took the pistol out of the vehicle and handed it to Langdon.The pilots eyes bulged at the sight of the weapon. He walked over to Teabing and whispered, Sir, my base apologies, but my diplomatic flight allowance provides unaccompanied for you and your manservant. I can non coin your guests.Richard, Teabing said, smiling warmly, two thousand pounds sterling and that loaded gun say you can take my guests. He motioned to the Range Rover. And the unfortunate fellow in the back.CHAPTER 69The drug trafficker 731s twin Garrett TFE-731 engines thundered, powering the plane skyward with gut- wrenching force. aside the windowpane, Le Bourget Airfield useped away with startling speed.Im fleeing the country, Sophie thought, her body forced back into the leather seat. Until this split sulphur, she had believed her game of cat and mouse with Fache would be somehow providedifiable to the Ministry of Defense. I was attempting to protect an innocent man.I was arduous to fulfill my grampss dying wishes.That window of opportunity, Sophie knew, had just closed. She was leaving the country, without documentation, accompanying a wanted man, and transporting a specify hostage. If a line of reason had ever existed, she had just crossed it. At intimately the s peed of sound.Sophie was seated with Langdon and Teabing near the front of the cabin the Fan resiny ExecutiveElite Design, according to the gold medallion on the door. Their plush swivel chairs were bolted to tracks on the floor and could be repositioned and locked around a rectangular hardwoodwind instrument table. A mini-boardroom. The honor surroundings, however, did little to camouflage the less than dignified state of affairs in the rear of the plane where, in a separate seating knowledge domain near the rest room, Teabings manservant Remy sat with the pistol in hand, begrudgingly carrying out Teabings orders to die hard guard over the bloody monk who lay trussed at his feet interchangeable a piece of luggage.Before we turn our attention to the keystone, Teabing said, I was wondering if you would permit me a few rule books. He sounded apprehensive, give care a father about to give the birds-and-the-bees lecture to his children. My friends, I realize I am but a guest on this journey, and I am honored as such. And yet, as soul who has fatigued his life in search of the Grail, I feel it is my duty to warn you that you are about to step onto a path from which there is no return, regardless of the dangers involved. He turned to Sophie. Miss Neveu, your grandfather gave you this cryptex in hopes you would keep the secret of the hallowed Grail alive.Yes.Understandably, you feel obliged to follow the trail wherever it leads.Sophie nodded, although she felt a second motivation still burning within her. The honor about my family. condescension Langdons assurances that the keystone had nothing to do with her past, Sophie still horse sensed something deep personal entwined within this mystery, as if this cryptex, forged by her grandfathers own hands, were trying to speak to her and offer some kind of resolution to the emptiness that had stalk her all these days.Your grandfather and triple others died tonight, Teabing continued, and they did so to ke ep this keystone away from the Church. Opus Dei came within inches tonight of possessing it. You understand, I hope, that this puts you in a position of exceptional accountability. You have been handed a torch. A two-thousand-year-old flame that cannot be allowed to go out. This torch cannot fall into the wrong hands. He paused, glancing at the rosewood box. I realize you have been given no choice in this matter, Miss Neveu, but considering what is at stake here, you must either to the full embrace this responsibility or you must pass that responsibility to someone else. My grandfather gave the cryptex to me. Im sure he thought I could handle the responsibility. Teabing looked further but unconvinced. Good. A strong will is necessary. And yet, I amcurious if you understand that successfully unlocking the keystone will carry with it a far greatertrial. How so? My dear, imagine that you are suddenly holding a map that reveals the location of the sanctum Grail. In that moment, yo u will be in possession of a accuracy capable of altering history forever. You will be the keeper of a trueness that man has sought for centuries. You will be faced with the responsibility of revealing that truth to the world. The individual who does so will be august by many and despised by many. The question is whether you will have the necessary strength to carry out that task.Sophie paused. Im not sure that is my conclusion to make.Teabings eyebrows arched. No? If not the possessor of the keystone, then who? The brotherhood who has successfully protected the secret for so long. The Priory? Teabing looked skeptical. But how? The brotherhood was shattered tonight. Decapitated, as you so aptly put it. Whether they were infiltrated by some kind of eavesdropping or by a spy within their ranks, we will never know, but the detail remains that someone got to them and uncovered the identities of their four top members. I would not trust anyone who stepped forward from the brotherhoo d at this point.So what do you suggest? Langdon asked.Robert, you know as well as I do that the Priory has not protected the truth all these years to have it gather make clean until eternity. They have been waiting for the right moment in history to share their secret. A time when the world is call fory to handle the truth.And you believe that moment has arrived? Langdon asked.Absolutely. It could not be more obvious. All the historical signs are in place, and if the Priory did not intend to make their secret known very soon, why has the Church now attacked? Sophie argued, The monk has not yet told us his draw a bead on. The monks purpose is the Churchs purpose, Teabing replied, to destroy the documents that reveal the great deception. The Church came closer tonight than they have ever come, and the Priory has put its trust in you, Miss Neveu. The task of prudence the Holy Grail cl betimes includes carrying out the Priorys final wishes of sharing the truth with the world.Langdo n intervened. Leigh, asking Sophie to make that decisiveness is quite a load to drop on someone who only an hour ago conditioned the Sangreal documents exist.Teabing sighed. I apologize if I am pressing, Miss Neveu. Clearly I have always believed these documents should be made public, but in the end the decision belongs to you. I plain feel it is important that you begin to think about what happens should we succeed in opening the keystone.Gentlemen, Sophie said, her voice firm. To quote your words, You do not find the Grail, the Grail finds you. I am going to trust that the Grail has found me for a reason, and when the time comes, I will know what to do. some(prenominal) of them looked startled.So then, she said, motioning to the rosewood box. lets move on.CHAPTER 70Standing in the draught room of Chateau Villette, Lieutenant Collet watched the dying fire and felt despondent. Captain Fache had arrived moments earlier and was now in the next room, yelling into the phone, trying to array the failed attempt to locate the missing Range Rover.It could be anywhere by now, Collet thought.Having disobeyed Faches direct orders and lost Langdon for a second time, Collet was refreshing that PTS had located a bullet hole in the floor, which at least corroborated Collets claims that a shot had been fired. Still, Faches mood was sour, and Collet sensed there would be dire repercussions when the dust settled.Unfortunately, the clues they were turning up here exitmed to shed no light at all on what was going on or who was involved. The black Audi outside had been rented in a fictive name with false credit card numbers, and the prints in the car matched nothing in the Interpol database. other agent hurried into the living room, his eyes urgent. Wheres Captain Fache? Collet merely looked up from the burning embers. Hes on the phone. Im off the phone, Fache snapped, stalking into the room. What have you got?The second agent said, Sir, Central just heard from Andre Vernet at the Depository assert of Zurich. He wants to talk to you privately. He is changing his story. Oh? Fache said. Now Collet looked up.Vernet is admitting that Langdon and Neveu spent time inside his bank tonight. We figured that out, Fache said. Why did Vernet lie about it? He said hell talk only to you, but hes agreed to foster fully. In exchange for what?For our keeping his banks name out of the news and besides for helping him recover some stolen property. It sounds like Langdon and Neveu stole something from Saunieres account.What? Collet blurted. How?Fache never flinched, his eyes riveted on the second agent. What did they steal? Vernet didnt elaborate, but he sounds like hes willing to do anything to get it back. Collet tried to imagine how this could happen. perhaps Langdon and Neveu had held a bank employee at gunpoint? Maybe they forced Vernet to open Saunieres account and facilitate an escape in the armored truck. As viable as it was, Collet was having trouble believ ing Sophie Neveu could be involved in anything like that.From the kitchen, another agent yelled to Fache. Captain? Im going done Mr. Teabings speed dial numbers, and Im on the phone with Le Bourget Airfield. Ive got some vainglorious news. Thirty seconds later, Fache was packing up and preparing to leave Chateau Villette. He had just learned that Teabing kept a private jet nearby at Le Bourget Airfield and that the plane had taken off about a half hour ago.The Bourget representative on the phone had claimed not to know who was on the plane or where it was headed. The takeoff had been unscheduled, and no flight plan had been logged. exceedingly illegal, even for a small airfield. Fache was certain that by applying the right pressure, he could get the answers he was looking for.Lieutenant Collet, Fache barked, heading for the door. I have no choice but to leave you in charge of the PTS investigating here. Try to do something right for a change.CHAPTER 71As the Hawker leveled off , with its nose aimed for England, Langdon carefully lifted the rosewood box from his lap, where he had been defend it during takeoff. Now, as he set the box on the table, he could sense Sophie and Teabing leaning forward with anticipation.Unlatching the lid and opening the box, Langdon turned his attention not to the lettered dials of the cryptex, but rather to the tiny hole on the bottom of the box lid. Using the tip of a pen, he carefully outside the inlaid Rose on top and revealed the text beneath it. triggerman Rosa, he mused, hoping a fresh look at the text would bring clarity. Focusing all his energies, Langdon studied the strange text. The Da Vinci Code aft(prenominal) several seconds, he began to feel the initial frustration resurfacing. Leigh, I just cant obtainm to place it.From where Sophie was seated across the table, she could not yet see the text, but Langdons inability to immediately identify the verbiage surprised her. My grandfather spoke a oral communicati on so obscure that even a symbologist cant identify it? She quickly realized she should not find this surprising. This would not be the first secret Jacques Sauniere had kept from his granddaughter.Opposite Sophie, Leigh Teabing felt ready to burst. ardent for his chance to see the text, he quivered with excitement, leaning in, trying to see around Langdon, who was still hunched over the box.I dont know, Langdon whispered intently. My first shot is a Semitic, but now Im not so sure. Most main(a) Semitics include nekkudot.This has none.Probably ancient, Teabing offered.Nekkudot? Sophie inquired.Teabing never took his eyes from the box. Most modern Semitic alphabets have no vowels and use nekkudot tiny dots and dashes written either on a lower floor or within the consonants to indicate what vowel sound accompanies them. Historically speaking, nekkudot are a relatively modern addition to language.Langdon was still hovering over the script. A Sephardic transliteration, perhaps ?Tea bing could bear it no longer. Perhaps if I just orbit over, he edged the box away from Langdon and pulled it toward himself. No doubt Langdon had a solid familiarity with the standard ancients Greek, Latin, the Romances but from the fleeting glance Teabing had of this language, he thought it looked more specialized, possibly a Rashi script or a STAM with crowns. victorious a deep breath, Teabing feasted his eyes upon the engraving. He said nothing for a very long time. With each passing second, Teabing felt his confidence deflating. Im astonished, he said. This language looks like nothing Ive ever seen Langdon slumped. Might I see it? Sophie asked.Teabing pretended not to hear her. Robert, you said earlier that you thought youd seen something like this before?Langdon looked vexed. I thought so. Im not sure. The script looks familiar somehow.Leigh? Sophie repeated, clearly not appreciating beingness left out of the discussion. Might I have a look at the box my grandfather made?Of vogue, dear, Teabing said, displace it over to her. He hadnt meant to sound belittling, and yet Sophie Neveu was light-years out of her league. If a British Royal Historian and a Harvard symbologist could not even identify the language Aah, Sophie said, seconds by and by examining the box. I should have guessed. Teabing and Langdon turned in unison, staring at her. Guessed what? Teabing demanded.Sophie shrugged. Guessed that this would be the language my grandfather would have used. Youre saying you can read this text? Teabing exclaimed. Quite easily, Sophie chimed, obviously enjoying herself now. My grandfather taught me this language when I was only six years old. Im fluent. She leaned across the table and fixed Teabing with an admonishing glare. And frankly, sir, considering your inscription to the Crown, Im a little surprised you didnt recognize it.In a flash, Langdon knew.No wonder the script looks so damned familiarSeveral years ago, Langdon had attended an event at Harva rds Fogg Museum. Harvard dropout Bill Gates had returned to his alma mater to put up to the museum one of his priceless acquisitions eighteen sheets of newspaper he had recently purchased at auction from the Armand Hammar Estate.His winning bid a cool $30.8 million.The author of the pages da Vinci Da Vinci.The eighteen folios now known as Leonardos Codex Leicester after their famous owner, the Earl of Leicester were all that remained of one of Leonardos most fascinating notebooks essays and drawings outlining Da Vincis imperfect theories on astronomy, geology, archaeology, and hydrology.Langdon would never forget his reaction after waiting in line and finally viewing the priceless parchment. Utter letdown. The pages were unintelligible. Despite being beautifully preserved and written in an impeccably neat penmanship crimson ink on cream paper the codex looked like gibberish. At first Langdon thought he could not read them because Da Vinci wrote his notebooks in an archaic Italian. But after studying them more closely, he realized he could not identify a single Italian word, or even one letter.Try this, sir, whispered the female docent at the display case. She motioned to a hand mirror affixed to the display on a chain. Langdon picked it up and examined the text in the mirrors surface.Instantly it was clear.Langdon had been so bore to peruse some of the great thinkers estimations that he had forgotten one of the mans legion(predicate) artistic talents was an ability to write in a mirrored script that was virtually illegible to anyone other than himself. Historians still debated whether Da Vinci wrote this way simply to amuse himself or to keep people from peering over his shoulder and larceny his ideas, but the point was moot. Da Vinci did as he pleased.Sophie smiled inwardly to see that Robert understood her meaning. I can read the first few words, she said. Its English.Teabing was still sputtering. Whats going on? Re poetise text, Langdon said. We need a mirror.No we dont, Sophie said. I bet this veneer is thin copious. She lifted the rosewood box up to a canister light on the wall and began examining the underside of the lid. Her grandfather couldnt actually write in reverse, so he always cheated by writing normally and then flipping the paper over and tracing the turn impression. Sophies guess was that he had wood-burned normal text into a block of wood and then run the back of the block through a electric sander until the wood was paper thin and the wood-burning could be seen through the wood. Then hed simply flipped the piece over, and laid it in.As Sophie moved the lid closer to the light, she saying she was right. The bright beam sifted through the thin layer of wood, and the script appeared in reverse on the underside of the lid. Instantly legible. English, Teabing croaked, hanging his head in shame. My native tongue.At the rear of the plane, Remy Legaludec strained to hear beyond the muttering engines, but the conversation up front was inaudible. Remy did not like the way the night was progressing. Not at all. He looked down at the bound monk at his feet. The man lay perfectly still now, as if in a trance of acceptance, or perhaps, in silent request for deliverance.CHAPTER 72Fifteen thousand feet in the air, Robert Langdon felt the physical world fade away as all of his thoughts converged on Saunieres mirror-image poem, which was illuminated through the lid of the box. The Da Vinci Code Sophie quickly found some paper and copied it down longhand. When she was done, the three of them took turns reading the text. It was like some kind of archaeological crossword a riddle that promised to reveal how to open the cryptex. Langdon read the verse slowly.An ancient word of wisdom frees this scroll and helps us keep her scatterd family unharmed a lynchpin praised by templars is the key and at bash will reveal the truth to thee.Before Langdon could even ponder what ancient word of honor the v erse was trying to reveal, he felt something far more primitive resonate within him the molar concentration of the poem. Iambic penta measure.Langdon had come across this meter often over the years while researching secret societies across Europe, including just last year in the Vatican Secret Archives. For centuries, iambic pentameter had been a prefer poetic meter of outspoken literati across the globe, from the ancient Greek source Archilochus to Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, and Voltaire bold souls who chose to write their social commentaries in a meter that many of the day believed had mystical properties. The roots of iambic pentameter were deeply pagan.Iambs. dickens syllables with opposite emphasis. Stressed and unstressed. Yin yang. A balanced pair. Arranged in strings of five. Pentameter. Five for the pentacle of Venus and the sacred feminine.Its pentameter Teabing blurted, turning to Langdon. And the verse is in English La lingua puraLangdon nodded. The Priory, lik e many European secret societies at odds with the Church, had considered English the only European pure language for centuries. Unlike French, Spanish, and Italian, which were rooted in Latin the tongue of the Vatican English was linguistically removed from Romes propaganda machine, and therefore became a sacred, secret tongue for those brotherhoods educated enough to learn it.This poem, Teabing gushed, references not only the Grail, but the Knights Templar and the scattered family of Mary Magdalene What more could we ask for?The password, Sophie said, looking again at the poem. It sounds like we need some kind of ancient word of wisdom?Abracadabra? Teabing ventured, his eyes twinkling.A word of five letters, Langdon thought, pondering the staggering number of ancient words that world power be considered words of wisdom selections from mystic chants, astrological prophecies, secret society inductions, Wicca incantations, Egyptian magic spells, pagan mantras the list was endles s.The password, Sophie said, appears to have something to do with the Templars. She read the text aloud. A headstone praised by Templars is the key. Leigh, Langdon said, youre the Templar specialist. Any ideas?Teabing was silent for several seconds and then sighed. Well, a headstone is obviously a grave score of some sort. Its possible the poem is referencing a gravestone the Templars praised at the grave of Magdalene, but that doesnt help us much because we have no idea where her tomb is. The last line, Sophie said, says that Atbash will reveal the truth. Ive heard that word. Atbash. Im not surprised, Langdon replied. You plausibly heard it in Cryptology 101. The Atbash Cipher is one of the oldest codes known to man.Of course Sophie thought. The famous Hebrew encoding system.The Atbash Cipher had indeed been part of Sophies early cryptology training. The cipher dated back to 500 B. C. and was now used as a classroom example of a basic rotational substitution scheme. A common for m of Jewish cryptogram, the Atbash Cipher was a simple substitution code based on the twenty-two-letter Hebrew alphabet. In Atbash, the first letter was substituted by the last letter, the second letter by the next to last letter, and so on.Atbash is sublimely appropriate, Teabing said. Text encrypted with Atbash is found throughout the Kabbala, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and even the Old Testament. Jewish scholars and mystics are stillfinding hidden meanings using Atbash. The Priory certainly would include the Atbash Cipher as part of their teachings.The only problem, Langdon said, is that we dont have anything on which to apply the cipher.Teabing sighed. There must be a code word on the headstone. We must find this headstone praised by Templars.Sophie sensed from the grim look on Langdons face that finding the Templar headstone would be no small feat.Atbash is the key, Sophie thought. But we dont have a door.It was three minutes later that Teabing heaved a frustrated sigh and shook his head. My friends, Im stymied. Let me ponder this while I get us some nibblies and check-out procedure on Remy and our guest. He stood up and headed for the back of the plane. Sophie felt tired as she watched him go. Outside the window, the blackness of the predawn was absolute. Sophie felt as if she were being hurtled through topographic point with no idea where she would land. Having grown up solving her grandfathers riddles, she had the uneasy sense right now that this poem before them contained information they still had not seen.There is more there, she told herself. Ingeniously hidden but present nonetheless. similarly plaguing her thoughts was a fear that what they eventually found inside this cryptex would not be as simple as a map to the Holy Grail. Despite Teabings and Langdons confidence that the truth lay just within the marble cylinder, Sophie had solve enough of her grandfathers treasure hunts to know that Jacques Sauniere did not give up his secrets easily.